Sunday, January 14, 2018

'Toon Reviews 12: DuckTales Vol. 2 Part 8: Scrooge's Pet

Scrooge’s Pet
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
If the kid characters of this show are the main focus in an episode, chances are it’s going to turn out basic in setup.  In other words, all we’ll see is them doing a kid-friendly activity without anything noteworthy to the story.  However, if the writing is done well enough, it can still be entertaining, and for the most part, that’s what happens here.  It’s about Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby going fishing, but Scrooge is too busy with setting up an important combination for a lock to his money bin to come along.  While some would expect the plot to drift into Scrooge needing to let go of his worries and spend time with the kids, what follows is a more mature and thoughtful plot of the kids deciding to get Scrooge a pet so that he won’t worry about his money so much.  However, as the episode will further show, even the most thoughtful acts can backfire spectacularly.  A sea captain offers the kids a lemming named Lucky who has an incurable appetite, particularly for cheese.  Unfortunately for Scrooge, it doesn’t stop there as Lucky steals a locket containing his bin’s new combination which he hasn’t memorized yet.  The rest of the episode goes on to make the most of its basic setup when the kids join Scrooge and Launchpad on a chase after Lucky to get the locket back which does make for some mild entertainment and humor.  The chase leads them all the way to the country of Novay in Scandinavia where Lucky does nothing but cause trouble for everyone trying to catch him on his boat, and later floating inland in Scrooge’s hat.  Funny as many moments in the chase may be, at times, it kind of feels like he wants to make life difficult for Scrooge and the gang even though they did absolutely nothing to deserve it.  We do ultimately get to a climax where they have to find Lucky in a flood of lemmings racing through Novay on their way to swim out to sea as they do every year while everyone runs for cover.  It looks like an exciting scene with a lot of fast movement and tension from the lemming stampede, but it doesn’t really feel exciting since the music doesn’t match the tension and speed most of the time, and the group’s many attempts to stop them take their time to happen.  While not a particularly exciting climax though, when it seems like the lemmings have finally made it to the sea, it’s easy to feel for Scrooge since it seems like he can never get to his fortune now.  Then again, he could just dismantle the combination lock and re-install it when he’s ready.  However, that issue doesn’t last for long when it turns out that one of the attempts to catch Lucky did work after all in the form of a cheese wheel.  As a result, the episode ends as basic as it started with Scrooge easily getting his combination back as well as a much less mischievous pet, nothing more nothing less.  Basic as the story mostly is, bits of comedy, heart, and action which, while not always effective, have noticeable effort and make the episode pretty good as it is. 8/10

The Ranking:
1.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 5: Too Much of a Gold Thing
2.      Back to the Klondike
3.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 2: Wronguay in Ronguay
4.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 4: Cold Duck
5.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 1: Don’t Give up the Ship
6.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 3: Three Ducks of the Condor
7.      Scrooge’s Pet
8.      Horse Scents

Well, that’s it for the first disc.  Next time we'll start the second disc, with the first part of another story arc, "Catch as Cash Can" called "A Drain on the Economy".
If you would like to check out other DuckTales reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

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